Great
news for Seldom
Scene
fans…
SCENEchronized,
their first CD of new recordings since 2000, is expected from Sugar
Hill Records on August
14.
This
new Scene project will contain 13 tracks, with songs from Paul Craft, Bob Dylan,
Steve Earle, Merle Haggard and Donna Hughes. It also features a number of
tributes to founding member, the late John Duffey, with refashioned versions of
two songs he recorded with The Country Gentlemen and one he wrote and cut with
the original Scene 34 years ago.
On
this list is Katy Dear, one of my favorite Country Gentlemen
songs ever. Current guitarist Dudley Connell explains how they came to choose
this song, and record it with 3 part harmony start to finish.
“We
all knew this one from the Gentlemen, and we would pull it out from time to time
just for the sheer pleasure of harmonizing together.”
Lou
Reid adds his homage to Duffey with a redo of This Morning At Nine,
and Fred Travers sings Don’t Bother With White Satin, a John
Duffey/Ann Hill composition that had appeared on their Act III
album in 1973.
“I
brought this song up with Duffey right after I joined the group [in 1995],”
says Connell. “And he said that whenever he sang it, he only got a smattering
of applause, so we never did it with Duffey. But now when we sing it live, it
goes over really well.
Fred
really nails it. I swear, it’s like he’s channeling Duffey.”
In
true Seldom Scene fashion, they include a couple of rock/pop songs turned
bluegrass: John Fogerty’s A Hundred And Ten In The Shade; Please
Be With Me, recorded by both Eric Clapton and The Allman Brothers; Bob
Dylan’s Tomorrow Is A Long Time.
Members
of Seldom Scene are Dudley Connell (guitar), Lou Reid (mandolin), Fred Travers (dobro),
Ronnie Simpkins (bass), and lone remaining original member, Ben Eldridge
(banjo).